Stressed drink-drive teacher gets 16 month ban from the road

A stressed-out teacher has been banned from the road after she was spotted swerving and driving erratically before being caught for drink-driving.

Chesterfield magistrates’ court heard on Thursday, October 20, how Jane Louise Howroyd, 48, of Worksop Road, Chesterfield, had alarmed two motorists who followed her into a car park and took her car keys from her.

Prosecuting solicitor Becky Allsop said: “One witness was driving along Mooracre Lane adjoining Rotherham Road, at Clowne, in a queue of vehicles when it was noticed that the car at the front was driving erratically and crossing the central line and it nearly hit about six cars.

“On the way to Clowne the car swerved and nearly hit a lorry.

“A driver behind the defendant was pressing his horn to attract the driver’s attention and the vehicle went into the Wilkinson’s car park.”

Mrs Allsop added that one of the witnesses took the defendant’s car keys from her and suggested she had been drinking alcohol.

Howroyd failed an alcohol drink-drive test after police arrived, according to Mrs Allsop, and she registered 59microgrammes of alcohol in 100millilitres of breath when the legal limit is 35microgrammes.

Following a police interview, Howroyd said she had been feeling stressed in her work as a teacher.

The defendant pleaded guilty to exceeding the alcohol drink-drive limit after the incident on September 14.

Defence solicitor Kirsty Sargent said Howroyd has a particularly stressful job as a tutor and she had had a couple of drinks and there had been alcohol still left in her system from a previous time.

Magistrates disqualified Howroyd from driving for 16 months with an option to reduce the ban if she completes a drink-drive rehabilitation course.

She was also fined £312 and ordered to pay a £31 victim surcharge and £85 costs.